This article focuses on the role of unionized members of the parliament. Referring to the famous study by Freeman and Medoff (1984) and considering the more recent literature we first review unions' political power at the example of the US. We conclude that trade unions have not been very...

According to the game-theoretic model of monetary policy, inflation is the consequence of time-inconsistent behavior of the monetary authority. The inflation bias can be eased by handing over the responsibility for monetary policy to an independent central bank and appointing a...

Im Jahr 2012 stiegen die Verbraucherpreise in Deutschland um 2,1%. Insgesamt sind die Preise seit der Wiedervereinigung im Durchschnitt um 2,0% und seit der Euro-Einführung sogar nur um 1,6% gestiegen. Abgesehen von wenigen Ausnahmen können sich die Deutschen daher über mangelnde...

Even after four decades of research it remains unclear, whether presidential popularity depends on the state of the economy. While about half of all studies for the United States find a significant effect of unemployment and inflation on presidential popularity, the others do not. Additional...